Walters Prize finalist: Ronnie Van Hout

Artist: Ronnie Van Hout, born 1962.

Whereabouts: Creative New Zealand artist in residence at the Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin.

Nominated for: No Exit Parts 1 and 2, 2003, first exhibited at the Linden Gallery, Melbourne; Physics Room, Christchurch.

Says the jury: "It presents the artist in a multitude of guises — creepy nature worshipper, alien abductor, abject idler, frustrated artist in situations as solipsistic as the series' title."

How is RvH finding Berlin, and vice versa?: I'm one month into the residency, and on a learning curve, getting used to a different culture and language. Whether people here "get" my work is a difficult one to gauge, as I'm not sure if anyone "gets it" anywhere. The concepts and forms of art have become universal in the Western art tradition, so it's much easier to have discussions about the content of work anywhere in the world.

Some commentators have referred to your work as "identity art": is that a term you feel appropriate?: No. Not too many artists (or anyone) likes to be labelled ... I would say my work deals with the subject of art and with the things that subject is dealing with. In other words, I like to call what I do "Art".

As to earlier shows like I've Abandoned Me, there is a Ronnie in various guises: roaring, aggressive, sick, bored. We see those kinds of people on the streets in Auckland every day. Perhaps you're saying we've good reason to worry about the state we're in?: Sure, the image of myself appears many times in the exhibition I've Abandoned Me but I don't view that appearance as "Ronnie in different guises". They are there as stand-ins for a person or people.

Who is the Ronnie behind the masks?: Are sure you could handle it?

What is your work in the Walters Prize show?: The work is from 2003 and is called No Exit Parts 1 and 2. The title comes from a Jean Paul Sartre play from 1944 called Huis Clos or No Exit. In this play three characters find themselves in a sparsely furnished room. They gradually come to realise they are dead and also in Hell, and that Hell is other people.

Visitors to the show will see a variety of objects, mannequins, videos, stuffed birds, fake rocks and fake logs. There are many elements to this show — individual works reflect various states of being, or even the same state as seen from different perspectives.